Fingers crossed for Peel to Douglas

You can probably find statistics to show that more people took part in road running races in the UK last year than ever before.

But most of the people who do so now are in the major city events such as the London Marathon, the Great North Run or the Manchester 10km where the roads are closed and therefore the majority of the health and safety risks of running on roads are taken away.

Traditionally, road races took place on open roads. The number of cars using the roads in the Isle of Man has increased quite dramatically. Not only has road usage increased in most countries throughout the world (and the Isle of Man is no different) but the population has also increased and so there are more people to use their cars.

There is also a lot less tolerance between one form of road user and another. It used to be common, if inconvenient, for a farmer to move his cows along the road (or his sheep). More people used bikes for everyday transport and even children used to be allowed to ride their bikes or walk to school rather than being driven in a four wheel drive.

And so tolerance towards athletes running or walking on the roads has diminished. At the same time the governing bodies of sport have, quite rightly, insisted than event organisers give a lot more thought to health and safety.

Paul Jackson took on the role of road race secretary for Manx Harriers at a time when these changes were quite noticeable. His first event, the 2002 Douglas to Castletown, was held in terribly misty conditions. With the benefit of the objectivity that a newcomer brought, he quickly realised that that event was no longer safe, if it ever had been.

PJ has brought new standards to road racing organisation. If you drove along the road from Douglas to Peel yesterday morning you would not have believed the number of warning signs and information for motorists.

He is in the process of handing over these duties to Phil Motley and Chris Cale who have also worked tirelessly on the Peel to Douglas run and other events.

There would be an outcry if the Peel to Douglas run, the oldest and most traditional of the remaining road races, was to be cancelled.

Three questions must be answered to avoid this outcry:

1. How do you reverse decades of increasing road usage and intolerance towards those not using cars?
2. How do you get sufficient marshals signed up in advance of the week before the event to avoid the "urgent appeal for marshals" that happens every year.
3. How do you get athletes to take note of the instruction to keep to the side of the road and not to run alongside each other than when overtaking.

Have a watch of Paul's safety instructions in the video attached and then have a look at the photos and videos and you will see why question 3 is (although potentially the easiest problem to overcome) probably the issue putting the event most at risk.